


Family Likeness

by Daegaer



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Arthurian, Lancelot - Freeform, M/M, Mordred - Freeform, Orkney, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:26:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mordred is a man without friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Likeness

Treeless windswept Orkney was home in a way soft rich Camelot could never be. Mordred smiled at his tall brothers, smiled at his uncle, smiled at everyone, and wished for the harsh light of dawn on the whale's road, his unsmiling dark-haired mother beside him. There had been no great welcome for him here, no joy in the king's face that another sister-son had come to take up his place by his uncle's side. _Welcome, nephew_, was as much as he had got, with a perfunctory kiss on the cheek, the king's dark hair soft against his face. The king had scarce looked his way since.

The queen's distaste was easier to understand. With no son to inherit after him, who should the king turn to but his nephews? Any woman would feel it keenly, to have failed her husband so. She smiled on Mordred and his brothers, but it was clear to all she would have no tears if told of their deaths. Camelot took their lead from such treatment, laughing at Northern manners. Mordred's brothers took it in as good grace as they could. They had proved themselves, time and again, and their friends' laughter had few real barbs to catch their flesh. For a man whom the king slighted, however, things were different. Mordred was a man without friends.

Only Lancelot smiled at him freely, spoke to him with no double meaning in his words, did not look away if the queen's mouth tightened. He did not fear losing the queen's favour, it seemed, had no worry of what she might say to the king. In Lancelot's company, Mordred could think this was what friendship with a man from the south would feel like. Lancelot too was an outsider, though one more gently received, his embrace did not feel constrained and one of mere duty.

"You have a look of your father about you," Lancelot said, and his kiss was kind and loving.

Mordred, so used to being compared to his mother, thought longingly of Orkney and his father, both so stern yet so loved. This, he thought, was a friend indeed, and kissed Lancelot back, willing and grateful, knowing his friend's soft laugh was one with no trickery in it.


End file.
